A Sequel to “The Fifth-Dimension Catapult”
Evelyn swayed … and the Thing moved!
The Fifth-Dimension Tube
A Complete Novelette
By way of Professor Denham’sTube, Tommy and Evelyn invadethe inimical Fifth-Dimensionalworld of golden cities and tree-fernjungles and Ragged Men.
CHAPTER I
The Tube
The generator rumbled androared, building up to itsmaximum speed. The wholelaboratory quivered from itsvibration. The dynamo hummed andwhined and the night silence outsideseemed to make the noiseswithin more deafening. TommyReames ran his eyes again overthe power-leads to the monstrous,misshapen coils. Professor Denhambent over one of them, straightened,and nodded. Tommy Reamesnodded to Evelyn, and she threwthe heavy multiple-pole switch.
There was a flash of jumpingcurrent. The masses of metal onthe floor seemed to leap into ungainlylife. The whine of thedynamo rose to a scream and itsbrushes streaked blue flame. Themetal things on the floor flicked togetherand were a tube, three feetand more in diameter. That tubewrithed and twisted. It began toform itself into an awkward andseemingly impossible shape, whilemetal surfaces sliding on each otherproduced screams that cut throughthe din of the motor and dynamo.The writhing tube strained and wriggled. Then there was a queer,inaudible snap and something gave.A part of the tube quivered intonothingness. Another part hurt theeyes that looked upon it.
And then therewas the smell ofburned insulationand a wire wasarcing somewhere,while thick rubberysmoke arose. A fuse blew outwith a thunderous report, andTommy Reames leaped to the suddenlyracing motor-generator. Themotor died amid gasps and rumblings.And Tommy Reames lookedanxiously at the Fifth-DimensionTube.
It was important, that Tube.Through it, Tommy Reames andProfessor Denham had reason tobelieve theycould travel toanother universe,of which othermen had onlydreamed. And itwas important in other ways, too.At the moment Evelyn Denhamthrew the switch, last-edition newspapersin Chicago were showingheadlines about “King” Jacaro’sforfeiture of two hundred thousand dollars’ bail by failing to appear incourt. King Jacaro was a lord ofracketeerdom.
While Tommy inspected theTube anxiously, a certain chief ofpolice in a small town upstate wastelling feverishly over the telephoneof a posse having killed amonster lizard by torchlight, havingdiscovered it in the act of devouringa cow. The lizard waseight feet high, walked on its hindlegs, and had a c